How Ascendion is staying afloat using its Talent Acquisition Strategy amidst the volatile job market

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Vinay Verma, Senior Vice President & Global Head – Talent Engine, Ascendion.

Navigating the Evolving Industry Landscape: Hiring Trends in 2023

The health crisis of the past few years has pushed businesses into the future, accelerating the pace of digital transformation and changing their existing work models. The current job market is actively being shaped by the residual effects of the pandemic and the ongoing macroeconomic and global uncertainties.

Hiring tech talent in 2023 means dealing with an uncertain economy, the effects of widespread tech industry layoffs, and candidates who increasingly want to work for a company with a mission, vision, and culture that aligns with their values.

With the market facing so many undercurrents, it is essential to navigate the evolving industry landscape, which we do Ascendion.

Cracking the Talent Code: Deciphering Market and Demand

With several companies announcing layoffs or hiring freezes, this is a clear indication that, yet another economic downturn is awaiting us. While this situation is challenging, the tech talent crunch is still ongoing, as the current market demand outstrips the talent supply, especially in some critical digital practice areas. As per Gartner, 86% of CIOs experienced increased competition for qualified candidates, with 73% concerned about IT talent retention.

At Ascendion, we nurture the most sought-after IT skills across industries, that increase talent demand:

• Cloud Computing Expertise for managing and migrating to cloud platforms.
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning skills to match the demand for automation, system efficiency, and business insights.
• Full-stack Development skills in web frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js and proficiency in programming languages like Python, JavaScript, and Java.
• Data Science and Analytics
• Cybersecurity
• Project Management, Business Analysts, & Scrum Masters

A report by Deloitte highlights the severe impact of talent shortages, projecting potential annual losses of up to US$162 billion for the US economy alone. Achieving innovation and digital transformation goals becomes increasingly challenging without the right talent. Companies are aware that their success hinges on the ability to secure the necessary talent and adapt to evolving technological demands.

Attracting, nurturing, and retaining skilled professionals remains a top priority for organizations seeking to thrive in the digital era.

Strategic Talent Acquisition for Competitive Advantage

Our talent acquisition strategy focuses on leveraging diverse sourcing channels, generative AI integration, and implementing automation to attract and acquire top talent.

Talent sourcing strategy

Our sourcing strategy focuses on engaging with top tech professionals and attracting active and passive job seekers. We use a multi-channel approach to source candidates beyond traditional means, like professional networking platforms, industry-specific tech communities, our internal database of candidates, social media, and employee referral campaigns to tap internal employee networks. We also have a robust campus hiring program to reach & attract an early talent pool from top colleges, including Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities.

Committed to diversity and inclusion, our DEI sourcing campaigns focus on narrowing the gender gap, creating equal opportunities for women, and building a diverse candidate pipeline.

We have progressively improved the gender ratio with impactful campaigns like ‘Ascend Again,’ catering to women returning from career breaks, ‘She Ascends’ spotlights successful women leaders, while our Women’s Café provides expert mentorship, fostering a supportive environment for professional development.

Increased efficiency with Generative AI Integration

We have integrated Generative AI with our proprietary Talent Management Platform to track and manage the candidate onboarding journey. This has tremendously helped in analysing large data sets, resume validation and fitment assessment, and auto-prediction of best-fit candidates for technical and non-technical roles.

The AI integration has provided significant velocity boost and efficiency gains around sourcing, screening, and candidate engagement.

Global engagement models to attract the best candidates

Considering the fluidity of today’s workforce, getting the right people in the right roles has become extremely important. We value candidates with a global mindset, cross-cultural competence, and the ability to work effectively in diverse teams.

Our on-shore, off-shore, and near-shore talent engagement model has given us access to a diverse tech talent pool. We also offer distributed or remote and hybrid work models to provide flexibility to the candidates.

Going beyond recruitment by crafting extraordinary candidate experiences

At Ascendion, we prioritize delivering a positive and engaging candidate experience. This is centred around transparency, responsiveness, and personalization.

Besides having platform-enabled and automated led processes, the true differentiator in candidate experience is the ability of our Talent Acquisition specialists to ‘walk the talk’ in digital engineering. They understand the evolving technology landscape and work as an ‘Ally’ for our top digital engineering talent, helping them make the right career choices.

We tailor our approach to each candidate, fostering personalized connections and building relationships based on mutual growth and trust. In addition to filling positions, we strive to create lasting connections that go beyond the recruitment process.

How to deploy the best strategies to fill your talent gap!

We pride ourselves on having a highly skilled and best-in-industry dedicated team of Talent acquisition specialists who play a crucial role in sourcing, assessing, and selecting top talent. Our TAs are true digital natives who gain mastery by going through a thoughtfully crafted three-tiered, 120-hour Digital recruitment training program. This program helps them understand the technology landscape across our key practice areas and develops depth in their domain knowledge for the industries we support.

We create true Masters of Craft with Ascendion Circles, our peer-to-peer- peer learning community that coaches our TA teams and focuses on hands-on nurturing for specific skills and projects. As part of Ascendion Circles, our recruitment teams work closely with other experienced professionals. They exchange ideas, overcome challenges, and are mentored. Together, we create an environment where ideas are shared, challenges are overcome, and successes are celebrated.